Islamophobia is witnessing a spectacular growth in the American public sphere. It creates an environment that casts suspicion on all Muslims, demonizes their faith and makes their lives difficult in small and big ways. There are increasing incidents of discrimination while travelling, in the job market, and while reentering the country after foreign trips. Every time Muslims try to construct a place of worship it is being used as an opportunity for Islam bashing and to garner political capital at the expense of Muslims. Law enforcement agencies, even though they enjoy a great deal of cooperation from the community continue to use religious profiling as a tool. The systematic and steady erosion of Muslim civil rights is also a slow and systematic corrosion of our constitution and our democracy.
Please refer to the original posting for accuracy, the words may have jumbled due to conversion from pdf.
http://udel.academia.edu/MuqtedarKhan/Papers/491659/TheThreat_of_Islamophobia_to_American_Muslim_Civil_Rights_Written_Statement_Submitted_into_Records_of_the_Senate_Judiciary_Subcommittee_on_Constitution_and_Human_Rights
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WRITTEN STATEMENT SUBMITTED TO SENATE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL SOCIETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
“Protecting the Civil Rights of American Muslims”
Tuesday | March 29, 2011 |10:00 a.m. | Dirksen Senate Office Building Rm226
The Threat of Islamophobia to American Muslim Civil Rights
Dr. Muqtedar Khan
Associate Professor,
Fellow, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
"The overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are outstanding Americans and make enormous contributions to our country" – Rep. Peter King, Republican from NY. I want to preface my comments with an expression of gratitude to Senator Richard Durbin from
great honor.
For the past few months, American Muslims have been forced to suffer an incredibly hostile civic environment in which, prominent politicians, religious leaders and political commentators have expressed egregiously hateful sentiments towards Muslims and their beliefs. Some prominent mainstream leaders have launched sustained campaigns to marginalize American Muslims and deprive them of protections guaranteed by the
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Bill of Rights enshrined in our constitution. State after state has embarked on legislative endeavors to make the practice of Islam illegal in the World’s oldest democracy.
Using disingenuous and mendacious distinctions between Islam and Islamic Shariah, between Muslims and radical Muslims; a coalition of individuals and groups associated with the far right and conservative perspective are using are seeking to make the very practice of Islam unacceptable in
Admittedly there have been several instances of terrorism related instances involving American Muslims in the past 10 years and they have caused 40 deaths. The most prominent generator of anti‐American hate on the Internet, which now enjoys monopoly as the dominant source of radicalization of American Muslims, is Anwar Awlaki, an American born Muslim. The threat of terrorism remains a vital concern and American Muslims more than anyone else are acutely aware of it for terrorism presents a double threat to American Muslims. American Muslims are as likely to be victims of terrorism as anyone else, but unlike everyone else they also have to suffer the consequence of the
inevitable backlash.
Usually in democracies, laws, leaders and law enforcement agencies, protect minority rights and hate groups and fringe elements become threats, but unfortunately in the
Law as Cover for Islamophobia
A prominent segment of the American political right, associated with the emerging conservative social movement the Tea Party, has deployed a two‐prong strategy to demonize Islam and Muslim beliefs. Their strategy seeks to argue that (a) the U.S. constitutional guarantees with regards to freedom of speech do not apply to Islam and (b) they seek to in fact ban the very practice of Islam in the U.S. by moving state legislatures to “an the Sharia” This subversive strategy that uses both the US Constitution and law in the service of intolerance reflects either a misunderstanding of the idea of religious liberty or a deliberate disregard for the very principle of religious freedom.
Islam and the First Amendment
Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association is one of the many conservatives advocating the idea that the first amendment in the
This idea that the US Constitution does not protect Islam is a declaration of war on the civil rights and human rights of American Muslims. It is also an assault on the US Constitution. In order to make discrimination against Muslims legally and politically acceptable, these hate mongering Islamophobes, have to first maul and diminish the
James Iredell, one of the first justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and a devout Anglican Christian who knew the founding fathers and the framers of the constitution personally, maintained that: “I consider the clause under consideration as one of the strongest proofs that could be adduced, that it was the intention of those who formed this system to establish a general religious liberty in America.”
He also emphasized explicitly that the First Amendment protects Muslims (he used the term Mohematans a term often used in the past to identify Muslims as followers of Prophet Muhammed), and excluding them would undermine the very principle of religious liberty and open the door for persecution.
“But it is objected that the people of
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The views of Justice Iredell, I submit, are representative of the fact that the original intent of the First Amendment did not exclude Muslims from its purview. Indeed it protects Muslims from precisely the kind of exclusionary politics advanced by the likes of Martin Peretz and Bryan Fischer.
Making Shariah Illegal
For the past one‐year,
The anti‐Sharia advocates try to make the distinction between peaceful practice of Islam and the hateful rhetoric of terrorists when they are questioned, but their discourse includes false propaganda that Islam preaches the killing of Christians, and that the Sharia is a narrow legal doctrine limited to hateful things. The Sharia in fact encompasses both –Islamic belief and Islamic practice. Banning the Sharia entails prohibiting Muslims from believing that there is one God, from giving alms to the poor, from fasting, from pilgrimage and from prayer; since all these pillars of Islam are the cardinal elements of the Sharia. The Sharia also teaches Muslims that Christians are not infidels but tradition of monotheism. people of the book who belong with Jews and Muslims to the Abrahamic7
This whole premise that
advocates are needlessly undermining our social and cultural harmony by fighting a fight that is absolutely unnecessary.
The principle purpose of the Bill of Rights in the
I conclude by quoting the doyen of religious liberty in
“as rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination.”6
The issue of whether Muslims’ religious liberty is protected in
8. In spite of this majority and after decades of activism by
Islamophobia as a Spectacle
Islamophobia has become a public spectacle. Religious leaders, politicians and members of the new emerging news‐cum‐celebrity profession of radio and television hosts, are all resorting to Muslim bashing as an easy way to attract media attention, raise funds and increase their public profile and in some circles popularity. Wearing bigotry on one’ sleeve as a badge of honor has become a performative style in American political culture.
Two recent events, a congressional hearing hosted by Rep. Peter King the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Muslim Radicalization on March 10, 2011, and the burning of the Quran on March 21, 2011 by Pastor Terry Jones and his congregation in
beginning of this statement.
Peter Kings’ hearings did not make
Peter King’s profile among those with whom intolerance and hatred sits comfortably. It also confirmed the view of many in the Muslim World that
The mock trial of the Quran that Pastor Terry Jones oversaw and the punishment that he meted out to the Holy Quran ironically shows that it is not the Quran but Christian pastors like Jones who are guilty of propagating and preaching hate. The act was clearly designed to insult millions of devout Muslims who revere the Quran. But sadly it was also an attempt to win a bigger share of the market of prejudice that now thrives in the
9, show how Islamophobia has
Final ThoughtsIslamophobia is witnessing a spectacular growth in the American public sphere. It creates an environment that casts suspicion on all Muslims, demonizes their faith and makes their lives difficult in small and big ways. There are increasing incidents of discrimination while travelling, in the job market, and while reentering the country after foreign trips. Every time Muslims try to construct a place of worship it is being used as an opportunity for Islam bashing and to garner political capital at the expense of Muslims. Law enforcement agencies, even though they enjoy a great deal of cooperation from the community continue to use religious profiling as a tool. The systematic and steady erosion of Muslim civil rights is also a slow and systematic corrosion of our constitution and our democracy.
Dear members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, as members of the United States Senate, you all have sworn to uphold and defend the
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in See Bryan Fischer, “Islam and the First Amendment: Privileges but not Rights,” publishedRenew
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/110324
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info/2011/02/25/an‐essay‐by‐gen‐william‐g‐boykin‐former‐u‐s‐general‐saysconstitution‐should‐not‐protect‐muslims/
General William Boykin’s Essay on the subject can be read here: http://www.euroislam.
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1st‐amendment‐status/ Seehttp://loganswarning.com/2009/12/11/togerson‐for‐congress‐islam‐should‐nothave‐
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See his comments made during the debate in North Carolina
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See Ibid.
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“haria is based on Ten Commandments,”The OnFaith blog of The Washington Post, August 4, 2010. See my argument about the compatibility of the Islamic Sharia and Judeo‐Christian values,
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/muqtedar_khan/2010/07/islamic_shariah_is_based_on_the_ten_commandments.html
8 The survey was conducted by Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar of
ARIS/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf
9 http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011‐03‐21‐quran‐burning‐florida_N.htmUsually in democracies, laws, leaders and law enforcement agencies, protect minoritymainstreaming Islamophobia. In the rest
